Today's smart lockers are designed horizontally where any package or envelope sits on the ground of the locker regardless of the size or the thickness of the delivered package, parcel, or envelope.
Some lockers are equipped with sensors configured for detecting the presence of any package having a thickness larger than ¼ inch. Data about the presence or absence of a package in a smart locker from the sensors enables control the smart locker's workflow fully automatically. For example, once the presence of the data is detected, a control unit associated with the smart locker automatically sends the recipient of the package a message to inform the recipient that the package is waiting to be picked up at the smart locker, with information on how to retrieve the package.
However, if the thickness of the delivered package is less than ¼ inch, which is the case for most flats and envelopes, the sensors are not able to detect these thin packages and thus cannot determine the existence of these types of package in the locker. As a result of this issue, control unit cannot rely on the sensors to generate accurate information regarding the existence of a package in a smart locker regardless of the size or thickness of the package, because a delivery person may choose to deliver a thin package or a flat to any locker. Therefore, if a package or flat isn't detected by the sensors, the control unit relies on the delivery person to indicate if he/she has in fact delivered a package or not. If the delivery person inputs the wrong message into the smart locker's user interface, the control unit's workflow—which includes data recording and notification to the recipients—may generate undesired results, such as the “Empty Locker” or “Ghost Delivery” errors.
An “Empty Locker” error happens if the delivery person indicates a delivery even when he/she didn't deposit a package inside the smart locker. In this case the control unit records a delivery, generates a pickup code and sends an email or text notification to the recipient that contains the pickup code. The recipient of this pickup code will find a locker that is empty, which leads to confusion and most likely a support call to the support department. A “Ghost Delivery” error happens when the delivery person selects “No Delivery” even though he/she has delivered a thin package to the smart locker. In this case, the control does not record a delivery, the locker is not be marked as occupied, no pickup code is generated, and no notification is sent out to the recipient. This leads to a package delivered to a locker but there is no record of it and nobody knows anything about it.
Likewise, today's dry cleaning lockers do not have a sensors and thus the application workflow cannot rely on the sensors to indicate whether a package is delivered or not and whether a package have been picked up after the smart locker's door has been opened. Therefore, a wrong input by the delivery person into the dry cleaning locker causes the “Empty Locker” error or “Ghost Delivery” error.